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Any guesses as to the ballet shown on this stage?


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Interesting, PP --

we share initials, I like that --

SF Opera house like Chicago's also has a relatively small sage-- the "usual" European ratio is the hte auditoriumn and stage are the same size, I believe. In SF, the stage is not small, but it is nevertheless NOT large. THe auditorium is almost twice the size of hte stage. When hte Paris Opera Ballet came to SF a few years back, they had to do La Bayadere with out some scenery -- the Shades scene looked peculiar, since they had to leave out one of hte darkest leafy framing drops, so hte stage was strangely bright with distant pale trees showing all too clearly -- and in the first act, the temple facade had to be so far forward there was no room for a staircase, and hte bayadere made her entrance without being able to point her foot and descend a flight of stairs -- she just stepped out onto the ground, and it was like NO entrance at all -- you didn't realize it was HER, the BALLERINA....

The Palais Garnier is on one of the France Arte Architectures films, which are all brilliant, and done from about 2000=2005. All of the history is there, including what suggested the 'lake' in 'Phantom', but it also mentioned the huge size of the stage. I've been there two or three times but not for many years. It was either the largest in Europe at the time, or one of them. So I was wondering if this set is a smaller rendering of the Palais Garnier stage. I remember this concentration on stage rather than auditorium size, because also in the series is a film about the Auditorium Building in Chicago, which went the opposite direction, with much more emphasis on the auditorium than the stage. This would go along with national differences --Chicago certainly had no wicked area for adventurers and voyeurs in what was supposed to be a rehearsal area, and the emphasis on democracy in a certain sense is not going to be as readily found in Paris (no box seats at first, etc., then they weren't especially well-located)--but as an opera house, Paris turns out to have been vindicated, even if it was threatened in more recent years (the Chicago house survived, but is mainly just a venue by now as theater, and was much used by rock groups in the 60s and 70s. Roosevelt University otherwise) So would there have been this much crowding of kitschy sylphs on the real stage of the Palais Garnier as there is on this replica, or is it much smaller?
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re: DVDs of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, i have two of the so-called 1929 restored version of the '25 film, both have the same ballet footage but one, an Image release, uses the waltz from act 2, the opera's easter fair scene, as a soundtrack to the ballet; the other, a Milestone release, uses selections from the Walpurgisnacht of act 5. (the final tableau brings on 3 male dancers dressed like the 'youth' in SYLPHDES, some garlands and lengths of ribbion also elaborate the corps de ballet's grand, symmetrical grouping.) both musical additions fit, somewhat, to Belcher's choreography. i have no idea if any study has been done on Belcher's work for this movie, i.e. what music he worked w/ when arranging the dancing for the shoot; i don't even know if the orchestra was playing anything real as it was filmed accompanying the ballet.

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before the Palais Garnier opened in 1875 Paris, there was the former, grand opera house on Rue Pelletier, here's a scan of that no-longer-extant theater's auditorium in its heyday - for those who know Degas's ballet pictures, it has been noted that it's this theater he knew best and that even after the Garnier opened and replaced the older theater, which burnt down, Degas often made reference to the former house in his pictures.

post-848-1221320701_thumb.jpg

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Thanks, rg. I've always wondered. This is the "Opera" that figures so prominantly in the fiction of Balzac and other French writers of the 1820s-70s, so it's nice to have a visual image.

It is rich, isn't it. Somehow I had the impression that it was almost austere -- possibly because one assumes a great contrast with the excesses of the Palais Garnier.

Does anyone have a guess as to the ballet being performed onstage in this illustration?

The hair and dress styles suggest that this performance was from the earlier 1870s, which puts it not too long before the building burned down in 1873. The following Wikipedia entry links to an 1873 painting by Tissot showing identical hair style, dress, and black ribbons around the neck..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1870s_in_fashion

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here's a scan at a high-resolution (so if it's too large for BT to handle i'm happy to take it down) of the center of this illustration, my guess is that it's something generic based on some work that takes place in an 'exotic' locale - perhaps it's closely based on SACOUNTALA - a pre-BAYADERE ballet.

in any case, here it is, the illus, obviously old has no captioning whatsoever except a handwritten note about 'grand opera paris'

interestingly, the conductor is depicted here as facing the dancers, just as the one shown in the photo that began this thread.

post-848-1221323467_thumb.jpg

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my guess is that it's something generic based on some work that takes place in an 'exotic' locale - perhaps it's closely based on SACOUNTALA - a pre-BAYADERE ballet.

I'm sure you're right. A quick Google turned up the information that the Marsaille Ballet (under its then Director Marie-Claude Pietragalla) performed a version of it a few years ago.

In Marseille, however, the Gautier libretto, based on an original Indian story, was considered insufficient to stand on its own. Or, perhaps, 19th century Orientalism doesn't please modern audiences any more. So Pietragalla updated with more recent and familiar cultural references.

In October 2000, the Ballet National de Marseille performed Sakountala, developed from the Sanskrit drama of Gautier's 19th century ballet and the story of the life of Camille Claudel. The piece is a weaving of Claudel's life in a passionate liaison with Rodin and the plot by Gautier - two lovers, separated in their worldly lives, coming together in Nirvana.

The director of the ballet, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, has chosen a captivating jigsaw-like story for this project. The Sanskrit ballet 'Sacountala', created in the 19th century by Gautier, was the stimulus for Camille Claudel, scholar at the studio of Rodin, to create her moving sculpture.

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my hunch is largely based on the look of this print, which i own, and others i've seen in books - this particular impression was originally given by Natalia Makarova to an individual who helped get her 1980 production of LA BAYADERE on stage; i acquired it subsequently. i know no more about it than that it documents a scene from SACOUNTALA.

post-848-1221332543_thumb.jpg

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this recent acquistion of the exterior of the Palais Garnier has the "Universal Studios Production" indicated on the back, so it's likely this was used as publicity handout by the Studio for its release of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - the silent film includes an exterior 'view' of the theater, which i suppose was likely an 'atmospheric' shot of a photo like this one.

the print is undated but my guess is circa 1925.

post-848-1223578884_thumb.jpg

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this recent acquistion of the exterior of the Palais Garnier has the "Universal Studios Production" indicated on the back, so it's likely this was used as publicity handout by the Studio for its release of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - the silent film includes an exterior 'view' of the theater, which i suppose was likely an 'atmospheric' shot of a photo like this one.

the print is undated but my guess is circa 1925.

Lon Chaney played Erik- The Phantom in a film of 1925 with Mary Philbin as Christina for Universal Studios.

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this scan shows a full-stage grouping of a female corps de ballet.

eventually i can provide some, if not necessarily conclusive, information about the circumstances of this ballet moment.

i think it's best to let any guesses come in w/o noting which ones are on target, near target, or off target.

in a day or so i'll post what i know about this photo.

I am rather late in joining the guessing game, but four things strike me. The dancers look late 19th century and well trained. The stage setting with the Graeco-Roman building in the background and quite clearly Cypress trees flourinshing in a rocky terrain indicating to me no other countries than Italy or Greece? I do not see any resemblance to any staging of ballets set in India in this photo and to my eyes the dancers do not look French as depicted in other photographs of that era.

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this thread has rambled, or may unraveled is more like it, a good long way since it was started.

have you looked back to what has come before?

the Indian dance refers to the dance depicted on the stage of the Rue Peletier house shown in an illustration added after the discussion began with the photo of the stage set meant to indicate the Garnier with dancers for the Lon Chaney silent film version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

the dancers turn out to have been American, or at least living in America, and working for United Studios in Hollywood; the choreography for this pastiche of French ballet is by E. Belcher, father Marge Champion.

it's a lot of back-and-forth to wade through, but it's probably best to start at the top of the thread and read through it, even if some of it becomes speed reading.

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this thread has rambled, or may unraveled is more like it, a good long way since it was started.

have you looked back to what has come before?

the Indian dance refers to the dance depicted on the stage of the Rue Peletier house shown in an illustration added after the discussion began with the photo of the stage set meant to indicate the Garnier with dancers for the Lon Chaney silent film version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

the dancers turn out to have been American, or at least living in America, and working for United Studios in Hollywood; the choreography for this pastiche of French ballet is by E. Belcher, father Marge Champion.

it's a lot of back-and-forth to wade through, but it's probably best to start at the top of the thread and read through it, even if some of it becomes speed reading.

Oops. Apologies for taking your time up to reply. I have been out of the loop for some time and forgot the procession of posts.

Leonid

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